Windows Updater Files Should Remain In The Cloud. They Take Up Too Much Space!
By
Staten Island, NY Posted: 8/23/2015 1:00:00 AM
Why is Windows so bloated?
Since I mainly use a Mac, I don't have ANY documents, photos, music or videos stored on my Documents folders on my Windows systems, yet my boot drive is reporting that it's using over 62 GB of data.
Each day, it keeps growing and growing, even though I never add any new programs or data.
Since I rarely install programs, and I don't have any data stored on my Windows systems, you may be wondering why it takes up so much space. It's because the c:\Windows folder takes up almost 50GB. That's 50 GB just for the operating system. That's crazy.
The reason for this is that every time Microsoft does a software update, it downloads the update to your computer in compressed form... after it archives the older versions, it expands the compressed download, and copies it to the Windows folder. Even after it copies the newer versions to your Windows folder, it keeps the original download and archives of the older versions indefinitely on your drive... taking up space, lots of it.
Since Microsoft sends multiple updates each week, your Windows folder will continue to grow every day, as newer versions of your system files pile up.
The simple solution is for the update program to download the update, then remove the installer itself and all other versions as soon as it's finished updating.
I realize this means you won't have a quick option to remove the update if it doesn't work, but there's no reason Microsoft can't re-download the uninstaller and any previous versions in the unlikely event that you need to remove an update. Think about it, how often have you ever had to remove a Microsoft Update? Probably never.
If there's a bug in an update, the uninstaller should just have a link to get the installer from the cloud, so you can save the space on your computer.
Joe Crescenzi, Founder
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